Joseph Austin Benwell
Bicentenary 1816-2016

The
year 2016 marks the bicentenary of Joseph Austin Benwell’s birth, on 26 May 1816 at 35 Canterbury Square, Southwark, London. It l also marks 130 years since his death on 13 May 1886 at Abingdon Villas, Kensington, London.

Many people, although possibly familiar with some aspects of his work (particularly his depiction of Florence Nightingale and his paintings of desert caravans), have no idea how varied and prolific he was in his output. In many ways he was a typical Victorian travelling artist, but arguably with a more diverse output than others.

Benwell is a good example of the genre of Victorian travelling
artists who, before the days of modern mass media communications, were
undeniably influential in shaping the British public’s perceptions of foreign
lands and religions. He was a prolific artist with a varied output ranging from woodcuts
and engravings for books and journals to large paintings and watercolours. A skilled draughtsman and also an accomplished watercolourist, Benwell had an eye for detail and specialised in recording scenes involving groups of people in unique settings, with a definite 'sense of place'. His vignettes capture people and places as they were in the mid to late nineteenth century.

'The Great Sphinx of Giza' 1886 (or, 'Resting caravan in front of the Sphinx of Giza'; or, 'Halt by the Sphynx, Egypt')

'Tunis water-carriers' - Illustrated London News, 1864

'Sketch of a ward at the hospital at Scutari' c1855 (depiction of Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War)

Material researched and written by Dee Murray. Website compiled by Dee Murray.

All images on this website are either scanned or photographed from the author’s own resources, appear with permission of owners/copyright holders, or are in the public domain in digital format via websites such as HathiTrust, Openlibrary.org, the Internet Archive (archive.org) or Google Books.